Urijah Faber talks TUF 15, rivalry with Dominick Cruz

This Friday night the newest season of the Ultimate Fighter will flicker into existence on the FX airwaves with a “real time” format to boot including live fights and immediate reaction from all of the involved parties. It will also give former WEC champion Urijah Faber an opportunity to reunite with rival Dominick Cruz in a competitive manner with each coaching a team of TUFers before eventually facing off for a third time in July.

While Faber is certainly amped at the idea of beating Cruz as a coach first, then as a fighter, it turns out his true motivation for accepting a role as one of the team-heads has to do with his love of the sport rather than his hate for “The Dominator”.

“That’s what I’m most excited about man,” replied Faber in an interview with MMAFightCorner when asked about watching the teams perform on a weekly basis. “I mean, I’m a huge fight fan. I mean, dream come true to watch two guys that are like, who have everything at stake, fight live each Friday. It’s going to be something great for me, that’s for sure.”

Of course, getting to one-up Cruz isn’t a bad prospect either as far as Faber is concerned based on their long-standing feud. While “The California Kid” may not be an instigator looking to cause problems, that doesn’t mean he won’t be ready to respond appropriately when need be.

“It’s a long history between us. And it’s basically, and I’ve always said, I feel like he chose me as an enemy. I don’t even know the guy and he already started you know, being kind of a jerk off,” said the 26-5 Faber. “So, I accepted it and I’ll run with it. I don’t have any enemies, but I’m not scared of the confrontation, that’s for sure.”

“I’ve never been in a situation where I’m training to basically fight and do harm to someone, and then also have to live in the same area as him and see him every day. So, it’s gonna be interesting man. I don’t know exactly how it’s gonna go, but it’s going to be interesting,” he concluded.

TUF 15 debuts at 9:00 PM EST with a two-and-half-hour special featuring sixteen qualifying fights with winners moving on to get a spot in the house, one step closer to a season title and six-figure contract.